There are ongoing challenges associated with the growth and evolution of wireless networks. For example, a macrocell or picocell access node may be configured to deploy multiple carriers within different frequency bands, such as a primary carrier utilizing a licensed frequency band in a primarily cellular mode of operation, and a secondary carrier utilizing an unlicensed frequency band that shares its spectrum with other modes of operation such as Wi-Fi. An example of utilizing unlicensed frequency bands is LTE-U, which is used by access nodes to deploy cellular carriers using Wi-Fi frequency bands in a cellular operating mode. However, utilizing an unlicensed spectrum requires periodically scanning a signal indicator of one or more frequency channels of the unlicensed spectrum, to determine whether or not the frequency channels have the capacity to sustain a load of the access node. Since the frequency channels may be used by other devices (such as, for instance, Wi-Fi routers), determining an appropriate frequency channel is necessary to deploy cellular subframes on the unlicensed frequency band. The periodic scanning occurs during a defined sensing period, which can cause delays and reduced quality of service (QoS) for delay-sensitive cellular applications requiring low latency, such as Voice over IP (VoIP), streaming, gaming, etc.